The Three Railway Engines
First Book in the Series. Summary Edward's Day Out Edward is an old engine, and has not been working out for a while. His crew feels sorry for him, and decide to use him one day. Edward and Gordon Edward helps Gordon when he gets himself stuck on a hill. The Sad Story of Henry A green engine named Henry is afraid of the rain, thinking it will spoil his lovely green paint and red stripes. One day, he runs into a tunnel and refuses to come out. After numerous attempts to move him, The Fat Director decides the shut him in the tunnel. Edward, Gordon, And Henry Henry has been stuck in the tunnel for a long time now, and wishes he had not been so silly. One day, Gordon goes too fast and bursts a safety valve. Edward is the only engine available, but he can not push the train without Henry's help. Characters * Edward * Henry * Gordon * The Fat Director * The Red Engine (does not speak) * 98462 and 87546 (cameo) Trivia * The first three stories were first told in 1943, but, owing to WWII, they were not published until 1945. * The Reverend W. Awdry did not intend for the first three stories to be based on the same railway, but his publishers pressured him to bring Edward, Gordon and Henry together for a happy ending. * This book was first illustrated by William Middleton, but was later re-illustrated by C. Reginald Dalby. * In the Japanese version of this book, Edward's Day Out is known as "Fun Day" and The Sad Story of Henry is known as "Sickly Henry". * The 1998 Egmont edition included a foreward message by Christopher Awdry. * The book was released digitally for Apple products on May 11th, 2012. Goofs * In the first illustration of "Edward's Day Out", Gordon, 98462 and 87546 have yellow stripes instead of red ones. * In the second and third illustrations of "Edward's Day Out" a post appears between 98462 and Gordon. * In the third illustration of "Edward's Day Out" Gordon is missing his tender. * In the fourth illustration of "Edward's Day Out" Edward collects three coaches, but in the next illustration, he has five coaches with him. * In the first and second illustrations "The Sad Story of Henry" Henry is a 4-6-2. * As Henry runs into the tunnel Edward puffs through the other bore. However, when the passengers attempt to pull Henry out Edward is still puffing along in the direction he first came. * In the third illustration of "The Sad Story of Henry" it's not raining on the left side of the illustration. * It is stated that a second bore was dug after Henry was shut up, but in all the illustrations prior there were two bores shown. * In the final illustration a man paints the top of Henry's tender, from ground level. Others are painting his boiler, but they are standing on his valence; for some reason, they're painting around his red stripes instead of simply painting over them. * In the final illustration Gordon has circular buffers. * Gordon's steampipes continuously disappear and re-appear. * Gordon is portrayed as already having LMS running gear, square buffers and a six-wheel Fowler tender. Category:Books Category:Rev W. Awdry Books